by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
For the 32nd consecutive year, Wings of America will sponsor a team of the fastest Native American runners to compete at the US Cross Country Championships. Eight young men and eight young women will be competing on January 18, 2020 in the junior age division race in San Diego, CA.
Wings team members attended a multi-day training camp in Albuquerque, NM between Christmas and New Year’s Day to supplement their knowledge of elite conditioning techniques and foster unity before traveling for competition.
Runners were selected for their Wings team based on their performance at post-season races including Nike Cross Regionals and Footlocker Regionals.
One of the Wings runners is Jonathan Fragua Jr., an 11th grade distance runner at V. Sue Cleveland High School, Rio Rancho, New Mexico. He is from the Confederate Tribe of Warm Springs and Jemez Pueblo.
Candace Heath is his mother and she’s from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Jonathan Fragua is his dad and he’s from Jemez Pueblo. They live in Jemez Pueblo, NM.
“My mom and dad push me to be the best I can be with whatever I do and taught me how to respect and help everyone around me,” said Jonathan, Jr. “My mother was always there through the ups and downs on my running career. She drove me to practices and made sure to push me to be my best and helped me become the runner I am today.”
“I am training with the plans from my coach,” said Jonathan. “Training is really great, and I am seeing improvements every day. My race goal is to run under 27 minutes because last year I ran 28 minutes. The challenges I am facing is getting my run in and making sure it is good. I end up running and feeling great afterwards but other than that, I am making sure I become more strict on my schedule in order to improve before race day.”
“Jon has been a huge asset to our team,” said Kenny Henry, Cross Country Coach, Cleveland HS. “It was evident very early on that Jon was going to be successful. The thing I noticed and loved about Jon was he was never afraid to run with the top runners. His very first day with us as a freshman he made it very clear he was going to run with our best runners, and that is how he approaches every day.”
“I am very proud of Jon for reasons outside of running, probably more so than for his accomplishments. Jon has had to deal with more than a fair share of adversity. First, as an eighth grader he was all set to compete for us at the high school level and right before our summer training was to begin, we found out that he could not, which was a big blow to Jon. As such he had to wait another long year before he could run for Cleveland HS. This season also was a test for Jon. For personal reasons Jon was forced to miss the second half of our season. He had to train everyday but watch his fellow teammates compete each week. Included in that was having to watch his team win a state championship. This was a team he had been the top runner on. I do believe that these tests are going to force Jon to only work harder and be better in the future. I am more than excited for Jon not only in track this spring but also for his senior cross country season,” added Coach Kenny.
“Jon is a very diligent and dedicated runner,” said Dustin Martin, Executive Director, Wings of America program. “Even though he got himself into a little trouble this last semester and couldn’t finish out the cross-country season racing with his high school team, he kept working and managed to run a strong qualifying time in Casa Grande. That experience should serve him well after these next few weeks of lonely training. During training camp, I also saw that he has the speed to surprise people in a sprint. So long as he puts himself in a position to compete with another group of racers, I think he can run really fast in San Diego.”
“Jonathan is enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs located in Warm Springs, Oregon,” said mom Candace Heath. “For the past 10 years we have lived in Jemez Pueblo where his dad is from. Jonathan comes from a family of long-distance runners. His dad was also a runner and his grandpa, uncle and great grandpa instilled in Jon that running is a way of life. He participates in the tribal dances here in Jemez as much as he can and in the fall, they have foot races.”
“Jon works hard every day to make himself a better runner and it amazes me how hard he pushes himself to be better student athlete. He maintains a 3.00 GPA and he had played basketball, baseball and does track and field but his passion is running. He’s been running since the second grade and I’m sure he’ll continue to run a long time. Someday I know he’d love to run at the collegiate level,” added Candace.
Photo Credit: Candace Heath
How up lifting to read of a young Tribal member’s success. Warm Springs has numerous young athletes that have done some amazing accomplishments in their sport. And congratulations to the parents for their support and raising of such a devoted young man.
This is awesome! Congratulations to this young man and to his parents for helping him to develop his skills to bevomr a champion and role model gor all.